Coming in hot with a Halloween air date, discovery+ shocked fans with a revival of the acclaimed paranormal investigative series Ghost Hunters. Stars of the hit show, Jason Hawes, Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango, and Shari DeBenedetti, lead the series alongside numerous special guests, including Kindred Spirits’ Amy Bruni and Adam Berry.
Since it first aired in 2004 on Syfy, Ghost Hunters has quickly become one of the most well-known paranormal reality series. It has spurred multiple spin-off shows included Kindred Spirits and UFO Hunters, and many of the investigative duos have gone off to lead similar projects.
However, the team is now back together for a fourteenth season, consisting of ten episodes.
These episodes will see The Atlantic Paranormal Society investigators, also called the TAPS team, explore many notoriously haunted locations.
Giving us a sneak peek into the new series, Monsters & Critics was able to catch up with Amy Bruni and Adam Berry during a roundtable at New York Comic-Con. Speaking about their long experience in the ghosting hunting industry and keeping their passion alive, Bruni shared, “Our view of ghosts changes constantly. It’s very fluid. We’ll never tell you that ghosts exist or tell you what they are.”
Her expertise came to life as she continued, “We just really try not to speak in absolutes, but that also leaves us very open to trying new things. I think that’s one of the things that’s really kept us interested is we’ve moved into a lot of intention experiments, and energy and manifesting. There’s this whole idea about the power of positive thought. And like, we believe that positive thinking can affect our lives then why can’t it create energy that goes through your want to manifest something? Maybe we’ve been manifesting things so we’ve really been experimenting with the idea that sometimes ghosts actually be coming from us.”
While her teammate, powerhouse investigator Adam Berry, has had over 20 years in the ghost hunting industry, he believes that he learns something new every day. He told us, “Like any profession, we never stopped learning. I mean, if you ever meet a doctor who’s like, I know everything, then see a different doctor. Like, what if this is something new?”
Berry added, “We’re always exploring. We’re always picking up new books or talking with our friends who are in the paranormal community. There are tons of people that aren’t on television that have done this for over a decade, you know, 30-40 years, and to have roundtable conversations with those people and to share your ideas only makes you a better person in the field that we are in.”
Monsters and Critics was able to hear Bruni and Berry’s thoughts on a variety of topics, including the discovery+ revival of Ghost Hunters, respecting different cultures while investigating, and the future of ghost hunting.
Respecting cultural differences while ghost hunting
When Bruni and Berry were asked about going international with their work, they both agreed that it’s important to take cultural differences into consideration when it comes to interacting with spirits. Bruni answered, “That’s actually something that we’ve been really, really trying to dig into more in the last couple of years. I mean, obviously, we brought in translators before for people. We were always very cognizant of the religion someone may practice or where they may be from.”
Giving more insight on the practices they have prepared for moments of cross-culturalism, she added, “We try to draw on that perspective and bring it up in discussion and see if they respond to that. We’ve brought in shaman before. If we did travel internationally, we would absolutely have to kind of hone in on the culture of wherever we’re going and bring in people who can speak for us. We don’t ever want to speak on behalf of [a community], we will bring in someone who could educate us in person.”
Berry, the Alabama-born investigator added, “If we’re talking about biscuits and cornbread, I’ve got you from the South. But I’m not gonna pretend to know what anyone’s life experience is because that’s not mine. We are very cognizant of it. If you show them the respect that they deserve, while you’re sitting in the room with them, they’re more apt to communicate with you and tell you the answers.”
He continued, “If you offend them upfront, by trying to speak the language or talking about something like ‘I know all about this,’ and you know nothing about it, that’s just going to hinder your entire investigation.”
What’s next on Ghost Hunters?
It sounds like there’s a lot in store for fans of Ghost Hunters as the duo teased the new elements that can be expected in the Ghost Hunters revival. Starting off light, Berry shared that there will be new equipment in the upcoming episodes.
“We have new pieces of equipment that have given us some really great evidence. We have this really cool thing called an EMF tripwire that we get to use. And each one is a different detector and they light up in different colors. That’s kind of interesting.”
Bruni cut in with, “We did the craziest spirit box experiment this season where we were in a home where we felt like the spirits did not know the other existed. So basically, we both went under with headphones and blindfolds, and we couldn’t hear what the other was saying. And they had a conversation. And it is the craziest thing you’ll ever see. We didn’t have any idea what was going on. Only the crew did.”
The duo also teased that in the finale episode, Berry “basically dies” in what they called a “kooky experiment.”
What’s in their future?
Rounding out the conversation, Bruni and Berry answered questions about where they’d like to see their careers develop. Bruni expressed that the last year was very busy for them.
She shared, “We were really expanding and doing all these crazy things. We have the show, obviously, we have a whole series of magazines that just came out. I wrote a book, I have a podcast. It was just nonstop. And I’m like, what do we do next?”
Berry chimed in with, “You know, I’m sure there are some famous people that are signing today that would love to play us in a biopic. We could be the next Lorraine and Ed Warren.” His partner agreed, adding, “I feel like it would be cool to see a Hollywood perspective of actual paranormal investigators without hyping it up. No, I don’t mean hyping it up. But like the human story of it, I think is really interesting. I think there’s a real story there with some creepy elements.”
Ghost Hunters Season 14 is currently streaming on discovery+.